Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	justification_n	justify_v	meritorious_a	2,124	5	11.4575	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40076	Dirt wipt off, or, A manifest discovery of the gross ignorance, erroneousness and most unchristian and wicked spirit of one John Bunyan ... which he hath shewed in a vile pamphlet publish'd by him, against The design of Christianity ...	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.	1672 (1672)	Wing F1701; ESTC R8698	59,846	88

his supreme faculty in it's throne c. and saith that they suppose it is within the Power of a mans own soul always to keep Sin out of it self c. But can he think that these words suppose it when 1. Mr. F. makes holiness the effect of God's grace and Spirit not of a mans own power 2. When he doth deny any such thing as perfect holiness in this life p. 27. And 3. When he saith immediately after his Third description that so far forth as holiness is vigorous and predominant in men it causeth them to perform good actions and forbear the contrary All this lamentable stuff is in the two first Pages But I have something else to do than thus to trace him to the end for 't is all alike and therefore I can look for no other should I do so from all wise men than to be call'd fool for my pains I will therefore only take notice of those things that he builds most noise upon After a deal of hideous non-sense and running over the same things again and again he saith in p. 13. That this Righteousness as Mr. F. hath described it is not that which justifieth us before God Because it is our own and tells us that there is the righteousness of men and the righteousness of God But is that Righteousness our own that is wrought in us by God's Holy Spirit Is not that God's righteousness which is the effect of God's grace who sees not that it is And therefore his Citation of Phil. 3. 9. will do him no service for S. Paul meant no other there by his own Righteousness which is of the Law than that which consisted in the observance of the purely Jewish Law which he calls his own righteousness because he could obtain it by his own natural power it consisting of external performances And by the Righteousness of God by Faith in the next verse he means the righteousness of the new Creature wrought in him by God's Holy Spirit through Faith in Christ's Gospel And so the Apostle explains himself in the following words That I may know him and the Power of his Resurrection c. That is that I may know the power of his Resurrection in raising me up to newness of life and of his death in mortifying all my lusts And whereas he abuseth Rom. 10. 3. to the same purpose take notice that their own Righteousness there is no other than that the unchristian Iews gloried in as that by which alone they expected justification and eternal Salvation and 't is the same with that in the Philippians He saith The Righteousness Mr. F. hath described is the Righteousness of the Moral Law only But I say that his general Descriptions take in the Righteousness of the Gospel too 'T is said that 't is such a disposition and temper of the inward man as causeth men to be under the power of all practical principles made known by Revelation and all the Laws of the Gospel I hope are such And Mr. F. abundantly sheweth that this Righteousness is by the Faith of Jesus Christ that is by effectually believing Christ's Gospel in shewing what an admirable instrument the Gospel is to work this Righteousness And this is an answer to the text quoted out of Rom. 3. 21. Mark by the way I. B takes Faith still for nothing else but a bare relying on the merits or righteousness of Christ which any presumptious wretch may do but I will make it good against men of an hundred times his abilities if it be possible any such should be of his mind that the true Christian Faith is such a Belief of the doctrine of the Gospel as implyeth an hearty complyance with all its Precepts whereof that of relying on Christ's merits is one and but one He saith the Righteousness Mr. F. hath described can't justifie before God because of its imperfections and then follows another page within two or three lines spent in proving and Crying out of the corruption of nature in the midst of which he brings Gal. 2. 16. to prove that his assertion where he said 't is By the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified But I have told the Reader already that Mr. F. never affirmed but absolutely denyeth justification by any thing but the Righteousness of Christ only as a meritorious cause and he holds the true living Faith to justify as a Condition without which no man by the Righteousness of Christ shall be justified And whereas the Apostle saith by the works of the law none shall be justified his meaning is that none shall be justified by the merit of them nor yet in any sence by them considered as opposed to the obedience of the Gospel He Saith the Righteousness which Mr. F. hath described can't justify because 't is not of faith This he proves from Gal. 3. 12. The Law is not of Faith The meaning of that place is the law makes no account of Faith allows no justification but on condition of legal obedience as the following words shew but he that doth them shall live in them But now the Righteousness Mr. F. hath described doth make account of faith it causing men to comply with all Divine Revelations and therefore with the Gospel He saith p. 18. that there are three things essential to Gospel Holiness of which Mr. F's Descriptions are utterly destitute The Holy Ghost Faith in Christ A new heart The Holy Ghost But Mr. F. hath shewn that this Righteousness cannot be obtained without the assistance of the Holy Ghost But 't is false and nonsense to say the Holy Ghost is of the Essence of Righteousuess and therefore that he ought to be put into the definition of it He may as well say that a man is falsly described when he is said to be a Reasonable Creature indued with a Soul and Body because God his Creator is left out of the description As for Faith in Christ I have again and again shewed that it is manifestly contained in Mr. F's descriptions And then for a new heart and a new spirit What difference is there between these and Purity of nature and a Sound complexion of Soul and a Divine or Godlike nature doth not every body know that these are but several expressions of the very same thing P. 23 He inveighs against Mr. F's saying that it was Christ's main errand to effect our deliverance out of that sinful state we had brought our selves into and so to put us again into possession of the holiness that we had lost By this you see he was not ignorant that Mr. F. asserted the corruption of nature for all his base suggestions to the contrary Now saith he I would have the Reader take notice that in this last clause to put us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost is the Summ of all his large Descriptions and the Holiness he contends for is only that which

in this matter there is but a notional difference between these two it having been shewn that Christ as a Saviour designs our holiness his Salvation being chiefly that from the worst of Evils sin Canst thou think Reader that Mr. F. deserves to be accused as Popishly affected in this point Are all those Papists in the Doctrine of justification that deny a dead Faith to be the condition of it and doth not S. Iames say that Faith without works is dead And if a living Faith justifies is it Popery to say that it justifies as 't is a living Faith I am sure 't is non-sense to say otherwise Doth Mr. F. any where contrary to the Apostle Paul assert the merit of Works no he makes works or a working Faith only a necessary condition of justification as S. Iames doth and all the Apostles and Christ alone to be the meritorious cause of it And he must needs attribute our justification to the free grace of God in Christ when he makes also the condition of it Faith a free gift a grace of God's holy Spirit In short let the Reader consult Mr. F's Free Discourse between two intimate Friends p. 149. to p. 190. and there he shall see his full sense of justifying Faith and the notion given there of it sufficiently defended 2. The other notion Mr. F. in this inference saith the Design of Christianity will give satisfaction concerning is that of the imputation of Christs Righteousness viz. That it consists in dealing with sincerely righteous persons as if they were perfectly so for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness And he shews that the Doctrine of the Design of Christianity makes it impossible that any other notion of this point should have truth in it But mark what he saith in the close But because both these Points are discussed in the Free Discourse I have said so little of the former and will proceed no farther on this but refer the Reader thither c. Would any one now have imagined but that this I. B. had he the least spark of ingenuity or meant at all honestly would have taken occasion to inform himself throughly from that Discourse concerning Mr. F's judgment in these two points especially and to try the strength of the arguments whereby he there hath confirmed his Doctrine and if he had been sagacious enough to espy flaws in them to make a discovery of them but he takes no more notice of that Book than if there had been none such extant nay though Mr. F. doth several times in the Design of Christianity refer to it This is the Blade that loves to tell the world he is a lover of Truth but if she hath no sincerer friends than he makes it apparent by this and all his other practices he is her case would be most deplorable All that understand this man may safely conclude that he hath as little will as ability to find out and acquaint himself with this precious Jewel But to the next Inference The Fifth Inference chap. 20. That we learn from the Design of Christianity what is the great measure and standard whereby we are to judge of Doctrines both whether they are true or false and in what degree necessary to be received or rejected The Sixth Inference chap. 22. That the Design of Christianity teacheth us what Doctrines and Practices we ought as Christians to be most zealous for or against Those surely that are most available to the begetting and increase of true holiness it is our duty to be most concerned for and those that have the greatest tendency towards the endangering of it to set our selves with the greatest industry against The Seventh Inference chap. 23. That the Design of Christianity well considered will give us great light into the just bounds of our Christian liberty And that that being to make men holy it may safely be presumed that such things as have neither directly nor consequentially any tendency to the depraving our souls are left free to us by our Saviour And 't is shewn that this is only to be understood of such things as the Gospel speaks nothing particularly and clearly concerning The Eighth Inference chap. 24. That 't is a most unaccountable thing to do that which is essentially evil in defence of the Christian Religion or of any opinions presumed to be Doctrines relating thereunto I would J. B. would well lay to heart this I am sure if he had done so when he read it there would have been no occasion for these leavs The Ninth Inference chap. 25. That 't is most unwarrantable for the Ministers of Christ to prefer any design before that of making men really righteous and holy The Tenth Inference chap. 26. That an obedient temper of mind is an excellent and necessary qualification to prepare men for a firm belief and right understanding of Christ's Gospel The Last Inference chap. 27. That we are taught by the Design of Christianity wherein the Essence Power and life of it consisteth viz. in a holy frame and temper of soul whereby it esteemeth God as the chiefest good preferreth him and his Son Jesus before all the world and prizeth above all things an Interest in the Divine perfections such as justice and righteousness universal Charity Goodness Mercy Patience and all kinds of purity From whence doth naturally proceed a hearty complyance with all the holy Precepts of the Gospel and sincere endeavours to perform all those actions which are agreeable to them are necessary expressions of those and the like vertues and means for the obtaining and encrease of them What thinkest thou now Reader canst thou fancy the Design of Christianity to be another Leviathan or rather art thou able to retain any tolerable opinion of that man that calls it so and represents it as such a piece of monstrous Devilism Nay can he himself have such a Brazen Forehead as not to be confounded to think what he hath done upon his reading over if he can be perswaded to it but this short account of that Treatise I pray God give him true Repentance and set home upon his Conscience what hath and shall be farther laid open to his view in this small Pamphlet which if ever he does I am sure he 'l acknowledge that Mr. F. hath given him as little temptation to accuse him so highly as did our blessed Saviour the malicious Pharisees to fasten upon him the imputation of as fearful crimes viz. profane company keeping Treason witchcraft and Blasphemy And who can be so blind as not to see that the only provocation I B. could have to exclaim at such a rate is this that the design of Mr. F's took is utterly to root out that doctrine which is the grand support of wretched hypocrites and which doth infinitely disparage our Blessed Lord Jesus and his glorious Gospel I mean that filthy doctrine of Antinomianism with which this man hath stuffed his sad Scrible and it appears not only